INQUIRY

INQUIRY • Volume 19, 2015
information for those who want to shape or even simply
thrive in these societies. This study contributes to both the
larger sociological discourse of class generally and also in
studying the intersection of sociology and urban design. This
intersection is often overlooked but is very crucial because
of the close connection between the way societies function
and their actual physical forms.
A Tapestry of Narratives: Rethinking Feminism through
South African Visual Culture
Alice Ishbel Sholto-Douglas, Global Liberal Studies
Sponsor: Professor Theresa Senft, Liberal Studies
This project details contemporary feminist art and other
feminist creative products in South Africa and analyses the
importance of the use of art as a platform for positive sociopolitical
dialogue on two levels, within the country itself and
on a global scale. The author recognizes the parallels between
South Africa’s feminist movement and the Global feminist
movement, particularly the dominance of a Western ideal
concerning popular feminism. This study examines the power
of art in and of itself in serving as a collaborative entity that
engages otherwise disconnected South Africans in a feminist
discussion. Finally, the author studies the use of new media
to enhance that connectedness and bypass the art, film or
television industries as they commodify and consequently
fail to encourage necessary controversy within the country
and in international exhibitions. Relying on the sentiments
and experiences expressed by the young, feminist creators
interviewed for this project in Cape Town, it is concluded
that the use of new media is essential in forming collaborative
communities of feminist creators so that South Africa
can become more unified through shared feminist narratives.
Organizational Adaptations to the Decline of Yiddish
in America
Shulamit Smith, Hebrew and Judaic Studies
Sponsor: Professor Hasia Diner, Hebrew and Judaic Studies
The decline of the Yiddish language rapidly increased
in mid-twentieth century America. As Jewish immigrant
groups gave birth to an English-speaking, assimilated
generation, organizations that had been previously built
on the foundation of Yiddish language and culture faced a
daunting challenge: How could they adapt to the decline in
Yiddish in order to sustain relevance in the American Jewish
community? This project focuses on the Workmen’s Circle,
an organization founded to protect the needs of immigrant,
Yiddish-speaking laborers, as well as the organization’s
summer camp for children, Camp Kinder Ring. The use of
archival materials and secondary research illuminates both
the subtle as well as the radical alterations made by Yiddish
oriented organizations from the mid-twentieth century
onwards. Understanding the changes the Workmen’s Circle
has made helps clarify when and how these changes happened
and ultimately sheds light on larger cultural shifts in
American Jewish history.
Richard Wagner and the Oxford Fantasists
Woodrow Steinken, Music
Sponsor: Professor Rena Charnin Mueller, Music
Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger
premiered twenty-two years apart, in periods of Wagner’s
life marked by armed conflict and the growing tension of
German nationalism. The operas portray two sides of a
practice descended from medieval music-making, the song
contest. Tannhäuser premiered after Wagner returned home
to Dresden following three unsuccessful apprentice years in
Paris. He followed this premiere by writing the first sketch
of Die Meistersinger the satyr play that would follow the
drama of Tannhäuser, according to his readings in Greek
drama. Both of these works were also revisited in the 1860s,
when Wagner again returned to Germany after exile and a
performance debacle in Paris. Years later in Oxford, C.S.
Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien faced the same problem Wagner
had addressed: how to imagine medieval fictions that were
critical but also instructive in their modern environments.
All three artists experienced armed conflicts that clearly
influenced their works and, further, inspired them to craft
stories and artworks that are both medieval and modern,
associating their scholarly work with concepts of national
unification and superior artistry. Wagner and the Oxford
Fantasists both shaped the Middle Ages for mass audience
consumption with the goal of societal preservation in mind.
Moral Issues in Euthanasia
Calvin Sung, Philosophy
Sponsor: Professor Regina Rini, Center for Bioethics
The American Medical Association and many contemporary
codes of medical ethics claim active and passive
euthanasia are importantly different. The idea is that while it is
never permissible for a physician to actively kill a patient, it is
permissible, at least in some cases, for a physician to passively
let a patient die. This study challenges this view by arguing
the moral force of the distinction between killing and letting
die is weak when it comes to different forms of euthanasia.
Not only is death a desired outcome, thereby diminishing
the weight of the distinction between killing and letting die,
but other factors such as practicality and patient dignity may
also pull in the opposite direction favoring active over passive
forms. All things considered, there are good reasons to prefer
a swift death to one that is drawn out over the course of an
illness. The conclusion of this analysis implies that the position
of the American Medical Association, that while passive
euthanasia is permissible in some cases active euthanasia is
always forbidden, is in need of reform.
31